Abraham Lincoln Quotes: 25 Inspirational Sayings To Celebrate The President’s 205th Birthday Abraham Lincoln Quotes: 25 Inspirational Sayings To Celebrate The President’s 205th Birthday Abraham Lincoln's 205th birthday falls on February 12, 2014. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Happy Birthday, Abe! The 16th president of the United States would have turned 205 years old today. For decades, Lincoln has consistently been ranked first or second in polls for the best U.S. president. He served as president from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. During that time he led the United States through the Civil War, preserved the Union and abolished slavery. The son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County. Five months before receiving the Republican Party's nomination for president in 1860, he described his early childhood: "I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.

My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all." Outside of his political career, Lincoln had many facets. Gingerbread men were his favorite dessert , he was an accomplished wrestler and a big cat-lover . A self-taught lawyer, Lincoln was a gifted orator. He spent many years perfecting his speaking abilities that became legendary. Below are 25 quotes to share on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. On Character "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." “In the end, it's not the years in your life that count.

It's the life in your years.” “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” “A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.” "Perhaps a man's character was like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real thing." "Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today." “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” “Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.” “I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.” Morals "Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." "I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true.” “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad.

That's my religion.” "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." “In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.” “No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.” “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” Nationhood “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.” “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” “America will never be destroyed from the outside.

If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” “Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.” Nerdfighteria Wiki - 45 Odd Facts About US Presidents - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep.3) 45 Odd Facts About US Presidents - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep.3) 50 Weird Laws - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep.5) Video information John Green Video description A weekly show hosted by John Green, where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. This week, John discusses 45 rather odd facts about the lives of US Presidents such as which one ran over a lady with his horse, or what Richard Nixon's favorite snack was (hint: it doesn't sound appetizing).

Mental Floss Video on Twitter: Artist acknowledgements for this episode: Green Family Portraiture, Brie Lee, Cindy The Octopus, Angela Rossi, Coop and the Llama, Jess Purser, Additional portrait gallery felt/textile artwork by Danica Johnson, Hank & John, Sherlock & Watson wooden dolls, Kimmy Fiorentino, Circus Sideshow Nesting Dolls, Gravlax, 8 bit perler bouquets, Geekapalooza, ---- History Hi, I'm John Green; welcome to my salon. This is mental_floss on Youtube. 1. Gerald Ford - birth name Lesley Lynch King, Jr. - was a male model for Cosmopolitan... and that is the first of 45 facts today you're going to learn about US Presidents. [intro music] 2. To stay fit, Herbert Hoover and his personal physician invented their own sport - Hooverball. Why haven't you seen the highlights on SportsCenter? Well, mostly because Hoover's Presidency was a failure in every regard. Also the game was like a cross between volleyball, tennis, and dodgeball, except much more terrifying, because it was played with a medicine ball. 3.

Speaking of Hoover and sports, young Herbert was manager of the football team at Stanford. But he was a little bit Holden Caulfield about the gig: at the first Stanford-Cal game in 1892, for instance, he forgot to bring the game ball. 4. Noted pugilist Teddy Roosevelt said he cut back on boxing in the White House because it was "rather absurd for a president to appear with a black eye or a swollen nose." 5. Equally absurd? Throwing a Swiss minister to the floor during a Judo demonstration, which Teddy also did. At a state luncheon. Even though Switzerland is neutral. 6. Incidentally, during his inauguration Teddy Roosevelt wore a ring that contained an honest-to-God lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair, which becomes slightly less weird when you know that: 7. In 1865, Teddy Roosevelt watched Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession in New York City, and apparently left quite an impression. 8. And speaking of Lincoln's hair, it was amazing. When historians talk about how remarkable Lincoln was as a man, a president, a vampire hunter... but they rarely mention that he could do THIS without product. 9. And he could rock more than one look too.

A reporter once described his mop as "Wild Republican hair." I'm guessing Republican hair used to be a lot wilder and crazier before Dwight Eisenhower ruined the whole thing with his baldness. 10. Ulysses S. Grant was once arrested during his term in office on speeding charges. The President was pulled over and fined $20 for exceeding the Washington speed limit... on a horse! 11. But that was hardly the most serious of equine crimes: Franklin Pierce, our most handsome president, was arrested during his first year in office for running over a woman with his horse. A scene I will now recreate with Franklin Pierce being played by a monkey and the old lady being played by Smurfette. Oh come on...That was terrible, Franklin Pierce! Anyway, charges were dropped due to lack of evidence/him being President. 12. Speaking of horses, Bill Clinton is kind of a Brony. When he appeared on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, he aced the three questions about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. 13. By the way, we learned on a visit to the Clinton Presidential Library that his cat almost had its own Super Nintendo game called Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill. 14.

Richard Nixon proposed to his wife, Pat, on their first date. Pro tip: that is not a good idea. Then he obsessively pursued her for two years until she finally said yes. Also not a good idea. 15. But it gets weirder than that, because to spend time with her in the interim, Nixon acted as Pat's chauffeur, driving her on dates with other guys... that's not creepy... 16. But perhaps creepiest of all was Nixon's favorite snack: cottage cheese with ketchup. 17. President Warren G. Harding bet a priceless set of White House china on a poker game — and lost...not the only example of corruption in his administration. 18. In 1988, George H.W. Bush briefly considered naming Clint Eastwood as his running mate. Instead he chose Dan Quayle. 19. Van Buren's entire autobiography fails to mention his wife. 20. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson issued the first Medicare card. 21. The recipient? Harry Truman. 22. And speaking of Truman, for his birthday in 1947, Harry's pals had a bowling alley installed in the White House...

but he hadn't bowled since he was 19 years old. 23. He also, contrary to popular belief, never granted clemency to a turkey. Several history sites claim that Truman was the first President to pardon a Thanksgiving Day turkey. But the Truman Library can't find any "documents, speeches, newspaper clippings, photographs, or other contemporary records" tying him to the custom. According to their research, the one time President Truman was given a live turkey for the holidays, his family did what people expected them to do: they ate it. 24. So, who was the first president to give a bird a pass? John F. Kennedy. In 1963, Kennedy announced he wouldn't eat the turkey he'd been given. Instead, he sent it to a farm upstate where it had plenty of space to run and play and gobble and contemplate what its country had done for it. 25. The first president to host an Easter Egg roll on the White House lawn? Rutherford B. Hayes. 26. The first to host a prom?

Gerald Ford, for his daughter Susan, who was all like, "Daaaaaad, this is so embarrassing, why can't we have a prom in the Hilton Ballroom like everybody else?!" 27. The first to own a Muzak franchise? Lyndon B. Johnson. Because you can't build a great society without terrible elevator music. 28. Incidentally, before he was president, Grover Cleveland was president. 29. But before that, Grover Cleveland was a hangman. As sheriff of Erie County, he personally carried out two hanging sentences to save his district money - which is probably not what the town meant when they were like, "you need to start closing some of these loopholes." *crickets* Anybody... loopholes? No? Sorry. 30. The great William Faulkner once refused an invitation from President Kennedy's White House. "Why that's a hundred miles away," Faulkner explained. "That's a long way to go just to eat." 31. Upon hearing the news of the notoriously quiet Calvin Coolidge's death, Dorothy Parker reportedly asked, "How can they tell?" 32.

In 1933, an assassin shot at Franklin Delano Roosevelt five times while Roosevelt was giving a speech. Five people were hit. None were Roosevelt. 33. And now, let me share with you an excerpt from Ronald Reagan's Diary from October 17, 1984: "Little Drew Barrymore — the child in 'E.T.' — was one of the children [I met]. She's a nice little person." 34. Speaking of Reagan, if you combine the electoral college results of the 1980 and 1984 elections, Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale 1014-62. 35. Also, he nearly took a part in Back to the Future III... in my opinion, the most underrated film in the franchise. 36. Furthermore in 1983, he convinced Mr. T to play Santa. Seriously. I have long argued that we need to imagine Santa more complexly. 37. Harry S. Truman's middle name? Just "S". 38. President Obama's received some weird gifts, including: 50 pairs of boxer briefs from David Beckham; 39.

a pair of blinged-out headphones exclusively designed for him by Ludacris; 40. a $50k insurance policy in case he's ever attacked by Australian crocodiles... only Australian crocodiles; 41. and a pet donkey that a town in Colombia tried to send him. Tried being the operative word because Obama did politely decline. 42. But speaking of pets, John and Abigail Adams, this is true, had a dog named Satan. 43. Benjamin Harrison's pet possums were named Mr. Reciprocity and Mr. Protection, which coincidentally are also the names of my guns. 44. And Teddy Roosevelt's kids had some tremendously named guinea pigs: Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, Father O'Grady... 45. For a better name than all of those, we return to my portrait gallery. By the way, that is my family. Jimmy Carter once wrote a children's book called The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer. That's right, Snoogle-Fleejer... Thanks for watching mental_floss on YouTube, made with the help of all of these nice people.

If you have a great question you've always wanted the answer to, submit it in comments and we'll try to answer as many as we can at the end of each video, starting in April. Press tab to toggle keyboard shortcuts. [ (left bracket): go back five seconds ] (right bracket): go forward five seconds = (equals): insert a timestamp \ (backslash): play or pause the video Flagging a point in the video using (?) will make it easier for other users to help transcribe. Use it if you're unsure what's being said or if you're unsure how to spell what's being said. You can split a transcript into collapsible sections by surrounding a title with five ='s, e.g. ===== Introduction ===== Surrounding a video time (mm:ss) in parentheses will create a link to that spot in the video, e.g. (0:46) Close Hi, I'm John Green; welcome to my salon. This is mental_floss on Youtube.<br /><br />1. Gerald Ford - birth name Lesley Lynch King, Jr. - was a male model for Cosmopolitan...

and that is the first of 45 facts today you're going to learn about US Presidents.<br /><br />[intro music]<br /><br />2. To stay fit, Herbert Hoover and his personal physician invented their own sport - Hooverball. Why haven't you seen the highlights on SportsCenter? Well, mostly because Hoover's Presidency was a failure in every regard. Also the game was like a cross between volleyball, tennis, and dodgeball, except much more terrifying, because it was played with a medicine ball.<br /><br />3. Speaking of Hoover and sports, young Herbert was manager of the football team at Stanford. But he was a little bit Holden Caulfield about the gig: at the first Stanford-Cal game in 1892, for instance, he forgot to bring the game ball.<br /><br />4. Noted pugilist Teddy Roosevelt said he cut back on boxing in the White House because it was "rather absurd for a president to appear with a black eye or a swollen nose."<br /><br />5. Equally absurd? Throwing a Swiss minister to the floor during a Judo demonstration, which Teddy also did. At a state luncheon.

Even though Switzerland is neutral.<br /><br />6. Incidentally, during his inauguration Teddy Roosevelt wore a ring that contained an honest-to-God lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair, which becomes slightly less weird when you know that:<br /><br />7. In 1865, Teddy Roosevelt watched Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession in New York City, and apparently left quite an impression.<br /><br />8. And speaking of Lincoln's hair, it was amazing. When historians talk about how remarkable Lincoln was as a man, a president, a vampire hunter... but they rarely mention that he could do THIS without product.<br /><br />9. And he could rock more than one look too. A reporter once described his mop as "Wild Republican hair." I'm guessing Republican hair used to be a lot wilder and crazier before Dwight Eisenhower ruined the whole thing with his baldness.<br /><br />10. Ulysses S. Grant was once arrested during his term in office on speeding charges. The President was pulled over and fined $20 for exceeding the Washington speed limit... on a horse!<br /><br />11.

But that was hardly the most serious of equine crimes: Franklin Pierce, our most handsome president, was arrested during his first year in office for running over a woman with his horse. A scene I will now recreate with Franklin Pierce being played by a monkey and the old lady being played by Smurfette. Oh come on...That was terrible, Franklin Pierce! Anyway, charges were dropped due to lack of evidence/him being President.<br /><br />12. Speaking of horses, Bill Clinton is kind of a Brony. When he appeared on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, he aced the three questions about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.<br /><br />13. By the way, we learned on a visit to the Clinton Presidential Library that his cat almost had its own Super Nintendo game called Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill.<br /><br />14. Richard Nixon proposed to his wife, Pat, on their first date. Pro tip: that is not a good idea. Then he obsessively pursued her for two years until she finally said yes. Also not a good idea.<br /><br />15.

But it gets weirder than that, because to spend time with her in the interim, Nixon acted as Pat's chauffeur, driving her on dates with other guys... that's not creepy...<br /><br />16. But perhaps creepiest of all was Nixon's favorite snack: cottage cheese with ketchup.<br /><br />17. President Warren G. Harding bet a priceless set of White House china on a poker game — and lost...not the only example of corruption in his administration.<br /><br />18. In 1988, George H.W. Bush briefly considered naming Clint Eastwood as his running mate. Instead he chose Dan Quayle.<br /><br />19. Van Buren's entire autobiography fails to mention his wife.<br /><br />20. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson issued the first Medicare card.<br /><br />21. The recipient? Harry Truman.<br /><br />22. And speaking of Truman, for his birthday in 1947, Harry's pals had a bowling alley installed in the White House... but he hadn't bowled since he was 19 years old.<br /><br />23.

He also, contrary to popular belief, never granted clemency to a turkey. Several history sites claim that Truman was the first President to pardon a Thanksgiving Day turkey. But the Truman Library can't find any "documents, speeches, newspaper clippings, photographs, or other contemporary records" tying him to the custom. According to their research, the one time President Truman was given a live turkey for the holidays, his family did what people expected them to do: they ate it.<br /><br />24. So, who was the first president to give a bird a pass? John F. Kennedy. In 1963, Kennedy announced he wouldn't eat the turkey he'd been given. Instead, he sent it to a farm upstate where it had plenty of space to run and play and gobble and contemplate what its country had done for it.<br /><br />25. The first president to host an Easter Egg roll on the White House lawn? Rutherford B. Hayes.<br /><br />26. The first to host a prom?

Gerald Ford, for his daughter Susan, who was all like, "Daaaaaad, this is so embarrassing, why can't we have a prom in the Hilton Ballroom like everybody else?!"<br /><br />27. The first to own a Muzak franchise? Lyndon B. Johnson. Because you can't build a great society without terrible elevator music.<br /><br />28. Incidentally, before he was president, Grover Cleveland was president.<br /><br />29. But before that, Grover Cleveland was a hangman. As sheriff of Erie County, he personally carried out two hanging sentences to save his district money - which is probably not what the town meant when they were like, "you need to start closing some of these loopholes." *crickets* Anybody... loopholes? No? Sorry.<br /><br />30. The great William Faulkner once refused an invitation from President Kennedy's White House. "Why that's a hundred miles away," Faulkner explained. "That's a long way to go just to eat."<br /><br />31.

Upon hearing the news of the notoriously quiet Calvin Coolidge's death, Dorothy Parker reportedly asked, "How can they tell?"<br /><br />32. In 1933, an assassin shot at Franklin Delano Roosevelt five times while Roosevelt was giving a speech. Five people were hit. None were Roosevelt.<br /><br />33. And now, let me share with you an excerpt from Ronald Reagan's Diary from October 17, 1984: "Little Drew Barrymore — the child in 'E.T.' — was one of the children [I met]. She's a nice little person."<br /><br />34. Speaking of Reagan, if you combine the electoral college results of the 1980 and 1984 elections, Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale 1014-62.<br /><br />35. Also, he nearly took a part in Back to the Future III... in my opinion, the most underrated film in the franchise.<br /><br />36. Furthermore in 1983, he convinced Mr. T to play Santa. Seriously.

I have long argued that we need to imagine Santa more complexly.<br /><br />37. Harry S. Truman's middle name? Just "S".<br /><br />38. President Obama's received some weird gifts, including: 50 pairs of boxer briefs from David Beckham;<br /><br />39. a pair of blinged-out headphones exclusively designed for him by Ludacris;<br /><br />40. a $50k insurance policy in case he's ever attacked by Australian crocodiles... only Australian crocodiles;<br /><br />41. and a pet donkey that a town in Colombia tried to send him. Tried being the operative word because Obama did politely decline.<br /><br />42. But speaking of pets, John and Abigail Adams, this is true, had a dog named Satan.<br /><br />43. Benjamin Harrison's pet possums were named Mr. Reciprocity and Mr. Protection, which coincidentally are also the names of my guns.<br /><br />44. And Teddy Roosevelt's kids had some tremendously named guinea pigs: Dr.

Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, Father O'Grady...<br /><br />45. For a better name than all of those, we return to my portrait gallery. By the way, that is my family. Jimmy Carter once wrote a children's book called The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer. That's right, Snoogle-Fleejer...<br /><br />Thanks for watching mental_floss on YouTube, made with the help of all of these nice people. If you have a great question you've always wanted the answer to, submit it in comments and we'll try to answer as many as we can at the end of each video, starting in April. Abraham Lincoln is born - Feb 12, 1809 - HISTORY.com Abraham Lincoln is born A+E Networks On this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln is born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Lincoln, one of America’s most admired presidents, grew up a member of a poor family in Kentucky and Indiana. He attended school for only one year, but thereafter read on his own in a continual effort to improve his mind.

As an adult, he lived in Illinois and performed a variety of jobs including stints as a postmaster, surveyor and shopkeeper, before entering politics. He served in the Illinois legislature from 1834 to 1836, and then became an attorney. In 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd; together, the pair raised four sons. Lincoln returned to politics during the 1850s, a time when the nation’s long-standing division over slavery was flaring up, particularly in new territories being added to the Union. As leader of the new Republican Party, Lincoln was considered politically moderate, even on the issue of slavery. He advocated the restriction of slavery to the states in which it already existed and described the practice in a letter as a minor issue as late as 1854. In an 1858 senatorial race, as secessionist sentiment brewed among the southern states, he warned, a house divided against itself cannot stand. He did not win the Senate seat but earned national recognition as a strong political force. Lincoln’s inspiring oratory soothed a populace anxious about southern states’ secessionist threats and boosted his popularity.

As a presidential candidate in the election of 1860, Lincoln tried to reassure slaveholding interests that although he favored abolition, he had no intention of ending the practice in states where it already existed and prioritized saving the Union over freeing slaves. When he won the presidency by approximately 400,000 popular votes and carried the Electoral College, he was in effect handed a ticking time bomb. His concessions to slaveholders failed to prevent South Carolina from leading other states in an exodus from the Union that began shortly after his election. By February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas had also seceded. Soon after, the Civil War began. As the war progressed, Lincoln moved closer to committing himself and the nation to the abolitionist movement and, in 1863, finally signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The document freed slaves in the Confederate states, but did not address the legality of slavery in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska or Arkansas. Lincoln was the tallest president at 6′ 4.

As a young man, he impressed others with his sheer physical strength–he was a legendary wrestler in Illinois–and entertained friends and strangers alike with his dry, folksy wit, which was still in evidence years later. Exasperated by one Civil War military defeat after another, Lincoln wrote to a lethargic general if you are not using the army I should like to borrow it for awhile. An animal lover, Lincoln once declared, “I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.” Fittingly, a variety of pets took up residence at the Lincoln White House, including a pet turkey named Jack and a goat called Nanko. Lincoln’s son Tad frequently hitched Nanko to a small wagon and drove around the White House grounds. Lincoln’s sense of humor may have helped him to hide recurring bouts of depression. He admitted to friends and colleagues that he suffered from intense melancholia and hypochondria most of his adult life. Perhaps in order to cope with it, Lincoln engaged in self-effacing humor, even chiding himself about his famously homely looks.

When an opponent in an 1858 Senate race debate called him two-faced, he replied, If I had another face do you think I would wear this one? Lincoln is remembered as The Great Emancipator. Although he waffled on the subject of slavery in the early years of his presidency, his greatest legacy was his work to preserve the Union and his signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. To Confederate sympathizers, however, Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation reinforced his image as a hated despot and ultimately led John Wilkes Booth to assassinate him on April 14, 1865. His favorite horse, Old Bob, pulled his funeral hearse. Related Videos Abraham Lincoln, America’s first superhero? | Hero Complex – movies, comics, pop culture – Los Angeles Times Abraham Lincoln, America’s first superhero? Feb. 18, 2012 | 4:35 a.m. Link This Presidents Day, almost 150 years after his assassination, Abraham Lincoln is poised to become the breakout star of 2012.

In June, he will fight the undead in a movie adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s bestselling novel, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” Later this year, Steven Spielberg will offer a more historically accurate – if disappointingly vampire-free – biography of Lincoln starring Daniel Day-Lewis. And (ahem) in my own upcoming novel, “ Red, White, and Blood ,” Lincoln gives advice from beyond the grave in order to save the current president’s life. But these are, honestly, just the latest additions on Lincoln’s post-mortal resume. Long before Paul Bunyan swung his axe or Superman battled Lex Luthor, Lincoln was America’s first superhuman. Illustration by Sean Hartter/For The Times He’s partied with Keanu Reeves in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and fought alongside Captain James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise. He has appeared in so much science fiction that it appears to be a rule: travel through time, meet Lincoln. The Grand Comics Database lists dozens of appearances by Lincoln, including his battles with zombies and werewolves and team-ups with Captain America, the Flash and Jughead.

(Not all at once, sadly.) Walt Disney built a robot version of him to teach kids about history at Disneyland. He’s had a cameo on “The Simpsons” and was played by Kelsey Grammer just a couple of weeks ago on “30 Rock.” In one comic, Lincoln has even punched out Hitler. Of course, in real life, Lincoln wasn’t always viewed with rose-tinted 3D glasses. During his campaigns, he was called a clown, an incompetent, a tyrant, and even a Satanist for his wife’s involvement with spiritualism. His constant oversight of the Union army was blamed for prolonging the war, and he survived several assassination attempts before John Wilkes Booth finally succeeded in killing him. But something about Lincoln still speaks to us despite the distance of time. His biography includes several elements that Joseph Campbell would tag as common to all mythical heroes. Grahame-Smith, while researching Lincoln’s life for his book, noticed that it is literally a hero’s origin story. “Here was this guy who came from absolutely nothing – no connections, no money, no education – and through the power of his sheer intellect and determination, achieved the highest office in the land and then saved that land,” he says.

“He is as close to an actual superhero as this country has ever seen.” Illustration by Sean Hartter/For The Times This isn’t on Campbell’s mythological checklist, but it probably helps that, at 6 feet 4 and massively strong, Lincoln could also kick butt. At his first debate, Lincoln saw one of his supporters in the crowd being attacked. He picked up the attacker and physically hurled him away. So it makes sense that Lincoln has become an action hero at the same time he’s become a folk hero. Maybe that’s why even students who can’t place the Civil War in the right century recognize Lincoln as an unambiguous crusader for truth and justice. Illustration by Sean Hartter/For The Times And in that way, in spite of Booth’s best efforts, Lincoln has filled the last requirement on Campbell’s list. He’s managed to overcome death. Almost all of our national icons have collected their share of tarnish. Washington and the other Founding Fathers are tainted by their ownership of slaves. Both Roosevelts, Teddy and Franklin, have been reviled by right-wingers lately for their interference in free markets. And let’s not even start on JFK.

But Lincoln is the president everyone still admires in our hyper-partisan country. He is the one Republican even Democrats are willing to claim. He’s become a symbol of the fight for equality across the lines of color, gender and sexual orientation. He’s a hero to both Barack Obama and Bill O’Reilly . Maybe that’s why we’re looking to him again right now. We’re about to head into what will be an ugly and toxic election. People are going to say and do things that will make us doubt we really are one nation, indivisible. But compared with what Lincoln endured, a few snide comments on a blog or the blather of a CNN debate doesn’t seem like much of a cross to bear. Lincoln preserved the union and freed the slaves. Despite the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans, he fulfilled the promise of the Constitution to millions more. Except to a few mouth-breathers still wrapped in Confederate flags, these are unarguably good things. More than any other president, Lincoln reminds us that we can rise above our differences and respond to the “better angels of our nature,” as he once said. We call it Presidents Day now, but we are still celebrating Lincoln’s birthday.

Washington fathered the nation, but Lincoln rescued it. That’s what heroes do. Abraham Lincoln can still teach us something about what it means to be an American. Even when he’s not fighting vampires. — Christopher Farnsworth Christopher Farnsworth is the author of “The President’s Vampire” series and a former investigative journalist. RECENT AND RELATED Abraham Lincoln / Useful Notes - TV Tropes Civilization : Lincoln is the leader of America in the first three games. He is added as a leader in an Expansion Pack for Civilization 4. In the Beyond The Sword expansion pack to 4, the intro cinematic shows him briefly giving the Gettysburg Address. This then Match Cuts to the Lincoln Memorial, where Cold War -era spies are going about their business. One of the subplots of Fallout 3 is the struggle between slavers and freedmen to control Lincoln's legacy. Several of his artifacts, including his hat and rifle, can be found and equipped in the game. In Team Fortress 2 , he was the original Pyro. And he also invented stairs, so people don't need to rocket jump to the upper floor anymore.

He is a playable character in The LEGO Movie where he can throw a copy of the Gettysburg Address, destroying enemies and objects. He also has a cameo in a picture in LEGO Batman 3 Beyond Gotham. He was added to The Simpsons: Tapped Out to celebrate the fourth of July. According to the backstory of Assassin's Creed , Booth was killed off by the Assassin Order, implying that Lincoln may have affiliations with the Assassins himself. Dealt in Lead takes place in a very strange world, where the Lich - Emperor Abraham Lincoln has risen from the dead to continue the war against the south. The ending of Conduit 2 has Abe Lincoln and George Washington in Powered Armor showing up as reinforcements for the protagonist. In Bioshock Infinite , Abraham Lincoln is demonized by the citizens of Columbia for the Emancipation Proclamation while Booth is revered as a hero for assassinating him by the Order of the Raven, a Klan-like society. In turn the opposing faction, the Vox Populi, revere Lincoln, albeit for the wrong reasons, such as seeing him as a role model for glorifying violence and conflict. in Robot Chicken . He's also voiced by Hulk Hogan .

Futurama , in a robot mental hospital: (Fry and another robot come upon a robotic Abraham Lincoln.) Fry: Lemme guess. He thinks he's Lincoln. Robot: Well he's supposed to. The problem is he's got multiple personalities, all of them Lincoln. Robo-Lincoln: I was born in 200 log cabins. Not to mention Evil Holographic Lincoln, as seen when the Holoshed on the Nimbus goes on the fritz again. Also, his head in a jar (and George Washington 's) appear in a President's Day commercial for Malfunctioning Eddie's Used Cars. One episode of the Super Friends had Kid Side Kick 's Wendy , Marvin and Wonder Dog watching a computerized maths lesson, when the computer started malfunctioning it merged with a history lesson about Lincoln giving the equation "16 - 2 = 4 scores and 7 years ago...." One episode of Dexter's Laboratory has Dexter animate Lincoln's head from the Mount Rushmore memorial into a Humongous Golem , to do battle with the giant George Washington his rival Mandark created. To make a long story short...

Statue Lincoln: (speaking for the first time) "It appears we are evenly matched." Aqua Teen Hunger Force : "No one can stop Time Lincoln. No one ever-" Appears in the Time Squad episode where he got fed up for being so honest and starts joining prankster gangs while calling himself 'Dishonest Abe' . He got better. Also mentioned in the Buffalo Bill episode as having apparently won the election by using the third eye he apparently hid under his hat to hypnotize his opponent. In an episode of Teen Titans Go! Starfire tells her own version of the story of Abe Lincoln which ends with him and John Wilkes Booth becoming best friends and still being alive today . South Park . Cult leader David Blaine brought the Lincoln statue to life. Jesus and friends defeated it by building and animating a John Wilkes Boothe statue. In "The List" Kyle is supposedly voted the ugliest boy in class by the girls, and Craig (voted the handsomest) consoles him that Abraham Lincoln was ugly too. Later Abe's ghost appears to Kyle and tries to convince him that ugliness will make him a more competent adult , but fails. Family Guy .

There was this Biblical joke about "Abraham (Lincoln) killing Isaac (the bartender from The Love Boat )." Another episode showed that Booth killed him for talking on his cellphone during the play. And in another it was because he was in the seat behind him and he couldn't see the through his hat. A parody of Mentos ads involved Booth shooting through his hat. Cut to the Griffins watching it, and most of them question whether the ad even had a message. Peter then stands up, and walks off while saying (as if hypnotized), "Must... kill... Lincoln...." In the episode "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater", Peter finds a bunch of photos that show Lincoln, (among with other 19th century politicans) visiting a brothel. Apparently he had jungle fever. In "The Man with Two Brians", he notices neighbor Dale's lawn is overgrown. Dale is pissed off at Lincoln because he freed the slave that used to mow the lawn for him. Stewie refers to the Amish as "Abraham Lincoln people" in "Amish Guy".

Brian worries that he'll stick out while posing as Meg in "Our Idiot Brian", like the one guy in Lincoln's cabinet without a beard. His body appears in a cutaway parodying The Nightmare Before Christmas where Jack decides to take over the fourth of July instead of Christmas. He appeared in "Yug Ylimaf" when Brian to a date to Ford's Theatre during the assassination. afterwards Statler and Waldorf appeared but when Statler cracks one of his remarks, he is also shot in the head. In the Adventure Time pilot, Abraham Lincoln transports Finn/Pen's mind back in time. And to Mars. Becomes a Mythology Gag in "Sons of Mars," when Abraham Lincoln is the King of Mars, whom Finn refers to as "the wisest, most honest superbeing of all time." He accidentally kills Jake , mistaking him for Magic Man , and then revives him by surrendering his immortality to Death , which turns him into the Lincoln Memorial . An episode of American Dad! revealed he invented peanut butter and their is an Illuminatiesque organisation dedicated to covering it up.

In the first season finale of Rick and Morty it's revealed that Rick combined the DNA of him and Adolf Hitler to create Abradolf Lincler he now see's him as an Old Shame The Simpsons : The Halloween Episode "How To Succeed In Dead-vertising" implied he was gay. "Bart to the Future" is based around a vision Bart has where, thirty years down the road, Lisa is president. Living with her in the White House, Homer becomes obsessed with finding the treasure Lincoln supposedly buried on the grounds. In "Mountain of Madness", Homer and Mr. Burns are trapped in a snowed-in cabin, succumbing to Cabin Fever . Before fighting, Homer asks " You and what army ?", before imagining an army of snowmen behind Burns, prompting him to say "Stay back, I have powers! Uh, political powers!", imagining various political leaders including Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi behind him. Lincoln: (swinging a chain) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S SHOWTIME!

Bart once saw him in an Imagine Spot where he was sailing down the Mississippi river on a raft with Huckleberry Finn when Bart asked what Abe Lincoln was doing their he replied "I dunno, your daydream" In a later episode Homer had an imagine spot were he saved his life by knocking out John Wilkes Booth then later they teamed up to save Kennedy Homer: You hit him high, I'll hit him low. A rapping animatronic Abe Lincoln appeared at "Duff Gardens". In "The Color Yellow" he appeared to help an escaped black slave who was a direct ancestor of the Simpsons escape to Canada, he eventually named his son after him who's name was passed on to Abe "Grampa" Simpson. Homer once claimed he thought their was a midget in his hat. Lincoln appeared in a picture in every single ending credits for Aqua Teen Hunger Force , inexplicably lighting a wooden rocket that the protagonists are riding in. This is expanded in the fictitious backstory that Shake provided for the group in The Movie , where this incarnation of Lincoln is known as "Time Lincoln," who aided the heroes after they escaped from Egypt. The Venture Bros.

meet Lincoln's ghost, who then helps them thwart a Manchurian Candidate-style assassination plot against the current president. Peter Renaday has voiced Lincoln in several different cartoons as well as Disney Theme Parks : In an episode of Animaniacs where, after he signed their autograph book, the Warner siblings helped him to compose the Gettysburg Address. 1000+ images about Abraham Lincoln on Pinterest | In color, Illinois and Windy day #DearCongress, "A House divided against itself cannot Stand." ~ Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) See More Discovery: Donner Party’s member James Reed had a Lincoln document - Thaindian News Thaindian News Discovery: Donner Party’s member James Reed had a Lincoln document July 21st, 2010 - 7:56 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt New York, July 21 (THAINDIAN NEWS) American researchers have unexpectedly discovered a military document that has former United States president Abraham Lincoln on it. The document was found among other properties of a member of the Donner Party - James Reed.

The handwriting was studied by librarians, handwriting experts and historians who later confirmed that Abraham Lincoln’s handwriting was on one of the rolls. The rolls contained the list of the volunteer soldiers including Abraham Lincoln who fought in the 1832 Black Hawk War. Though Abraham Lincoln’s handwriting has been confirmed on only one roll, all the four rolls lists “Private Abraham Lincoln” among the list of soldiers on the roll. “We often find documents that detail fascinating stories about Abraham Lincoln’s life and times, but it is rare indeed for the document to have such an intriguing history after it was written,” according to Daniel Stowell, who is the director of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln. Among the lines that were written by Abraham Lincoln are two and a half lines that stated some of the properties of Abraham Lincoln. It also noted that Lincoln had a tent that belonged to the United States military, to be returned after his service in the military. Researchers say without doubt, the document provides insightful details of Abraham Lincoln’s time in the United States army during his military service.

Question: Which president, and, according to some, noted vampire hunter, had a birthday on Feb 12?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln